CHP Chairman Özgür Özel: CHP is the guarantor of this country's unity; no spies come from Atatürk's party

The mass opening and groundbreaking ceremony of the Elmadağ Municipality was held today at Elmadağ Republic Square. The ceremony was attended by CHP Chairman Özgür Özel, Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş and his wife Nursen Yavaş, CHP Ankara Provincial Chairman Ümit Erkol, and Elmadağ Mayor Adem Barış Aşkın.

Other CHP members attending the ceremony included; CHP Group Deputy Chairman Murat Emir, Deputy Chairmen Gamze Taşcıer and Gülşah Deniz Atalar, Çankaya Mayor Hüseyin Can Güner, Mamak Mayor Veli Gündüz Şahin, Yenimahalle Mayor Fethi Yaşar, and Ankara Deputy Adnan Beker.

The ceremony began with a moment of silence and the National Anthem. Afterward, an opening promotional film featuring the activities of the Elmadağ Municipality was shown. While the film was playing, a banner reading "We will not forget," featuring a photo of the late Manisa Metropolitan Mayor Ferdi Zeyrek, was unfurled from a nearby apartment building.

At the opening, Elmadağ Mayor Aşkın, ABB Mayor Yavaş, and CHP Chairman Özel spoke in order. Highlights from Özel's speech are as follows:

"We accepted this invitation with great pleasure today to welcome the evening and the night when Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk said, 'Friends, we will proclaim the Republic tomorrow,' and to be together with the people of Elmadağ who have the love of homeland, nation, flag, and Atatürk in their hearts. Elmadağ has a meaning for me in this way. Mayor Adem Barış served as the district chairman in this district for 3 terms. When I was the Group Deputy Chairman, he would visit us whenever we came for group meetings.

He always told me that we would win Elmadağ. He became a candidate in 2019, and while we only had our Çankaya and Yenimahalle municipalities for many years, in 2019, along with the joy of the Metropolitan Municipality, he gave us the joy of winning a district like Elmadağ. Later, when he came to me with our district chairman with great pride in winning Elmadağ, I teased him: I said, 'Çankaya and Yenimahalle struggled for years and brought one Elmadağ; I hope you will bring many more in the coming elections.' Thankfully, he brought 13 municipalities after that.

"WE WILL ACHIEVE IT ALL TOGETHER"

Having good luck is one thing, but having pure intentions is another. Our villages have gained access to natural gas. He has works that he doesn't have enough time to count, such as Retiree Lounges, scholarships for over 500 university students every year, and loan assistance for secondary school students. These examples show how Republican People's Party municipalism is a municipalism that touches people. We heartfully thank my Mayor Mansur, my Mayor Adem Barış, the valuable mayors of Çankaya and Yenimahalle, and the mayors of Mamak and Kahramankazan who accompanied us here.

Each of the projects opened here today are works that befit the social democratic municipalism, populist municipalism, and the municipalism that understands troubles, which we cannot stop boasting about. We attach importance to the Elmadağ Municipality's hotel project that will revitalize the city's tourism, and the groundbreakings regarding the industrial zone and the cemetery services building. I hope that on another meaningful day for our country, we will all carry out the opening of these works whose foundations are being laid.

As you know, we made our party the first party after 47 years in the last local elections. With the services in the municipalities and the politics we have carried out shoulder to shoulder with our nation, we are hopefully marching towards power all together. We said it when the Republican People's Party won the Elmadağ Municipality. We said that we are the winners, but there are no losers; all of Elmadağ won. You have all succeeded together in making the sun rise in Ankara from Elmadağ, the gateway of 42 provinces to the east.

Now, we are aiming to make the sun rise for Turkey from Elmadağ and Ankara with the beautiful services provided together. Among those opened here today is a nursery. This nursery to be opened is the 781st nursery we have opened in Turkey. I had set a target of one thousand nurseries and 100 student dormitories for our Local Governments Department. I am following with great pleasure that we have reached 78 percent of our targets before the term is over with the 781st nursery, and that we are at 77 percent of that target by opening our 77th student dormitory with the Zübeyde Hanım Girls' Student Dormitory that I will open in Şişli tomorrow.

Our number of city restaurants has increased to 153. In the municipalities we took over from the People's Alliance, we increased social aid by 4 to 5 times. In other words, those who said 'If the CHP comes, social aid will be cut' have seen, especially with Mansur Yavaş's actions—by closing the credit books of the hungry, the poor, those left in the cold, those who cannot pass in front of the butcher due to debt, those who have debts to tradesmen, by providing meat aid to some, by loading special, purpose-oriented money onto the social aid cards given to some, by closing the credit books of citizens who were in debt during the pandemic period, and by supporting tradesmen in difficult situations—that 'If the CHP comes to Turkey, social aid will be cut' is a complete slander. The efforts of our mayors in this regard are very, very important.

"WE PROMISE A TURKEY WITHOUT BANS, A EUROPE WITHOUT VISAS"

Great injustices have been done to our party, the Republican People's Party, and everyone other than the People's Alliance. As if only they could serve this country, as if they loved this country, as if it wouldn't work without them... As the chairman of the party, I must clearly state this, just like those who proudly carry each of the six arrows on their lapels and are strictly attached to all the values of the CHP: In the last election, we dealt with slanders like 'Do not vote for them, they will divide the homeland, they will silence the call to prayer, they will lower the flag.' We all see what they are doing about these issues in recent days, but now they have tried to smear the CHP with everything, it didn't work, it didn't stick.

Now they are trying to say things like espionage or spying. From here, as the chairman of the party, looking into the eyes of the beautiful people of Elmadağ, I want to say this: Neither a spy nor anyone who would act against this nation comes from the party of the late Baykal, who opposed the American boots coming here during the March 1 memorandum; from the party of Karaoğlan, the conqueror of Cyprus, who risked everything while the whole world was against him to save the 'baby homeland' and wrote his nationalism on the poppy fields of Afyon and the blue waters of the Aegean; from the party of İsmet Pasha, the Commander of the Western Front, who tore up the Treaty of Sèvres and replaced it with the Treaty of Lausanne, making the whole world accept Turkey's title deed; from the party of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who, while some were laying out red carpets for enemy occupation armies and passing through foreign fleets with the Kartal steamship, told his aide, 'They will go as they came,' and drove them all away. In the past, they were saying they would lower the flag; the CHP defends the rights and laws of the Mehmetçik, the non-commissioned officer, and the expert sergeant who wave the flag, while some sit where they are and do nothing. While some do not give the rights and laws of the muezzins who recite the blessed call to prayer from mosques and minarets every day, and our imams who lead the prayers, the CHP defends their rights.

The CHP is the guarantor of this country's existence, unity, integrity, freedom of belief, and the right of everyone to live, dress, worship, and have fun as they wish. The CHP promises all young people in the coming period that they are banning concerts, they are banning festivals... A Turkey without bans and a Europe without visas is coming under the CHP government. We promise. With the hope of living the tomorrows where we will all protect the Republic entrusted by Atatürk together, I once again celebrate your Republic Day. Happy holidays. Happy holidays to us all."

News Source: 12punto